He defied the odds and “experts”: Stephen Harper officially retires

They said it couldn't be done. The Liberal Party led by Paul Martin were, I was assured when I went to work on Parliament Hill, guaranteed to win a huge majority. Instead, Stephen Harper became Prime Minister and served for almost 10 years.

I've criticized Harper from the right, and we all know how much Canada's left despises him.

But today, let's look back at the man's accomplishments and acknowledge that, say what you will, he clearly loved his country.

Comments

Deborah Graupner commented
“Just wait until ON defaults on their debt.”

It is coming. Ontario has already had not one but two credit downgradings. A number of businesses have already left and some are in the process of leaving for greener pastures so the tax base is getting smaller while Wynnie’s public sector expense and debt load are increasing faster than she can invent new fees/taxes/levies.

Zia Karl commented
“Will Justin start a consulting firm when he retires or will he just live off his trust fund?”

Neither, he will still be sucking on the taxpayers’ teat long after “retirement”, you forgot about the golden pension he gets as he leaves the building for the last time.

“Have they forgotten that the Harper government depleted the surplus that they inherited and put the country into deficit even before the global financial crisis occurred?”
untrue, please check the figures from the Fiscal monitor, it will disprove your lie
“Have they forgotten that it was only after the government almost fell in 2008 because a partisan budget was brought down which completely ignored the financial crises everyone saw coming and that it was only at the insistence of the opposition parties to do something that the stimulus plan was developed?”

The “budget” was a fiscal update. As for ‘doing something’ the best thing to do was to see what was happening and take measured steps, not do something in a panic, which was what the opposition wanted.

Just wait until ON defaults on their debt. Wynnie has amassed a debt as big as the government of Canada, and it continues to spiral out of control. Wynnie needs to be on a chain gang somewhere, paying back her debt to society. A long with all the other crooks and thieves in our government.
We had an actual Economist at the helm in Stephen Harper, and now the trough feeders are ensuring that Canada will eventually be handed over to the IMF.

@ Bill Elder on PET…right on…the debt he incurred will never be fixed…that is why I fear for Alberta and the NDP burgeoning bureaucracy…once it is in place it takes generations to fix it…if there even is the political will to do so, because they create so many dependents on them that no politician DARES to cut back on the government bureaucracy and any attempt to do so brings fear and rage from those DEPENDENTBUREAUCRATS…Harper tried to do so and you know the media bellyaching…we can’t fix socialism once it has it’s tentacles in a nation.

Stephen Harper…the greatest Canadian Statesman of my lifetime…strongly missed. He really cared about Canadians…such a rarity in a sea of self-serving politicians who make EVERY agenda a means of increasing their political dependents to gain votes in following elections…how? 1) increase the public service (dependent voters) and 2) increase immigration without careful analysis (more dependent voters)…its all about making the people need you first and later it will be all about making the people FEAR you…but that will be near the end…of Canada.

Will Justin start a consulting firm when he retires or will he just live off his trust fund? Maybe he will return to substituting as a drama teacher. He could always model stockings because he is so good at picking and showing his own.

Hey Bobbie – No I’m not the judge, but I know him that will judge. If you want understanding, then you will have to do the leg work. I study the book of truth, the Holy Bible for understanding. If you have the spirit of God, then you will have understanding.

It astounds me that the Harper spin doctors have convinced so many Canadians that the thriving Canadian economy is because of Steven Harper and the Conservative Government. I contend that the Canadian economy is thriving not because of Steven Harper and his conservatives but in spite of Steven Harper et al. Have people forgotten that Steven Harper ridiculed Dion and others for suggesting a slowdown in the economy during the last election campaign? Have they forgotten that the Harper government depleted the surplus that they inherited and put the country into deficit even before the global financial crisis occurred? Have they forgotten that it was only after the government almost fell in 2008 because a partisan budget was brought down which completely ignored the financial crises everyone saw coming and that it was only at the insistence of the opposition parties to do something that the stimulus plan was developed? Have they forgotten that Canadian banks are in relatively good shape, not because of Harper, who never believed in government regulation, but because the previous Liberal Governments kept them on a short leash? Have they forgotten how much was wasted on pork barrlel politics, especially in Tony Clement’s riding. And what about millions spent on partisan ads, paid by the Canadian taxpayer, in preparation for the coming election? The Canadian economy is in good condition today, not because of Steven Harper, but in spite of Steven Harper.

Stephen Harper was a PM to be proud of. I certainly did not always agree on his stance, but on the majority of issues facing Canada, he made good decisions, Sadly, I cannot echo the same sentiments for Trudeau.
God bless you Stephen Harper & all the best in your new endeavours.

Hey John… You’re on the right track but it’s not as simple as that and at the same time it is as simple as that..
For Canada to regain /reclaim its sovereignty it has to do the opposite of what you said and dump our central back or nationalize it and start printing our own money instead of borrowing the money from our central bank.. it is our sovereign right to do so but every politician since JFK is scared shitless to even talk about it for fear of getting schwacked by the powers that be. but like I said most people don’t understand how it works because if they did there would be a politician and a banker swinging from every lamp post in every town as a warning to all the other ones that were left to straighten out and fly right.
Until we return to an honest money System which is gold silver nickel copper we will be under the thumbs of the bankers who control the printing presses and can create currency at will.

Yes, Leviticus 2013, it is going to be a bumpy ride and I do not agree with the migrants and the massive immigration as we should have reasonable immigration and targeted immigration, but I do not agree with the bigotry, hatred and all the division since “civic nationalists” like myself tend to believe that globalists on the left, right and centre in our country do not want unity. They all work for power, and even the Conservative and NDP leadership races will not bring up the debt bubble in all Western nations and how systems work together.

I have a sense about how the systems may operate but my take is that getting public money back in government ownership is the only step to restoring our sovereignty. I think it is just as simple as that.

We need to use the Bank of Canada and nationalize the banks and then we can loan out money at 0% interest to municipalities and they can build public works, infrastructure and projects. That is what I am for.

And I already know that politicians buy people with their own money through tax cuts, social programs and other things. I have known this for years.

My take is that unity is the best way to get Canadians together and with a peaceful nationalist movement much like the Canadian Action party.

Mel Hurtig and the Canadian Action party is all I support because he agreed that central banking practiced under all PMs since PET along with centralized powers and control based on messaging, control, dictatorial powers, and fake democracy is all that has been allowed since the 1970’s. So if you hate PET you should hate all the PMs since then, including Jr. Trudeau.

John S..
You are a true word bender and a credit to your leftist liberal up bringing..
But your understanding of central banks the BIS and the IMF seems to be fair..
Maybe you could try to enlighten people with how all this works instead of being controversial.. You know… How they controll everything thru debt.. politicians corporations and others including the voters..they controll thru debt..
It was pet,s job after getting elected to surrender our sovereignty to the central banking system for personal gain.
click by click generationally they all ratchet down our freedoms and rights to requests and privileges..
Hang on… It’s going to be a bumpy ride

Deb has a long memory (unlike the MSM memory hole).
PET left a legacy of debt we are still burdened with today – servicing it takes a good deal of revenue out of the economy and out of service delivery. PET alienated the nation both the west and Quebec, he turned our rights into privileges and set the unelected court above elected parliament – my Dad used to say “he handed Canadians a real screw job”

PET walked off into the snowy evening, when he decided to retire, leaving Canada close to 300-billion in debt. His son is in the process of destroying Canada altogether. The pompous ass is going to get everything he deserves for his treasonous acts, and more. I’m looking forward to judgement day, where he will be held to account. Liberals always think they can lie and talk their way out of anything, and blame someone else. That is simply not so. When you destroy people’s ability to live, and import a gang of evil monsters, who belong to the devil’s evil cult of Islam, to destroy freedom and democracy, payback is just down the road! Live it up on our dime Junior, because there will be hell to pay!

“The definition of centrism means a mixture of left and right.” well no, Centre means centre not a mixture of anything.

“There was a mild, although very real recession in the first half of 2015, " Nope perhaps you should read what Philip Cross said about it. It was a period of slow growth because the auto industry was retooling and therefor shut down. BTW two consecutive quarters of slow growth is not the only criteria for a recession. Be that as it may, the low price of oil had nothing to do with Harper. Furthermore the reduction of industrial production in Ontario has everything to do with Liberal government there.

Funny that nobody has commented on the fact the Harper paid more than $250B in interest (on a debt caused by PET) over his time in office.

Always good for comic relief to read the leftist regressive fucktards take on how things should work in the world. Well…lets look at all the socialist utopias that have succeeded in history. So there was….??, oh and lets not forget about…..uummmm ???, right….then there was…????. OH…..that’s right…….NONE!
History will be the determination, unless of course, like all the true leftist regressive fucktards would have their way,……..history will be rewritten to fit their narrative. I hope and prey, almost daily, that these parasites (fucktards) cease to exist.

And yet you fail to recognize that progressives can be left wing, centre-left, centrist, centre to centre-right and even centre-right. Right wing means “populist, free trade, free markets and anti-elite”, but that is a laugh when the fact is major parties are usually pro-elite because they have the representation or the seats in parliament. That is the very definition of not sharing power.

He was a right wing extremist because he wanted more corporatization, more free trade and more secret deals and more military incursions, and he attacked Libya along with the US and most Western nations, and Libya was given to ISIS.

Adam Smith was an economist who wanted corporatization and no safety nets and the poor to die off and what do you think caused the 2008-09 financial crisis. It was deregulation, massive tax cuts under the Bush administration, and the system required bailouts because it was a credit crisis and the US then had to give bailouts. Millions lost their homes. It was an example of corporate capitalism run amok and that is unfettered capitalism with no rules and where corporations run the show. That is what deregulation is and what is meant by Ayn Rand and Adam Smith’s laissez-faire version of capitalism aka “leave it alone”.

Here is what laissez-faire means “laissez-faire [(les-ay-fair, lay-zay-fair)] French for “Let (people) do (as they choose).” It describes a system or point of view that opposes regulation or interference by the government in economic affairs beyond the minimum necessary to allow the free enterprise system to operate according to its own laws”.

Canada was about to go down the same route as the US with the Harper administration but Martin put in the laws to protect the banks, even though I feel that Canada has sold out too much to banks and needs more regulations.

The definition of centrism means a mixture of left and right. They are right wing because they are minimalist in terms of being hardly progressive and massively social conservative and not fiscal conservative at all.

And to answer your question, based on Wikipedia, a conservative party can never be left wing because that is impossible as all conservative parties worldwide even Progressive Conservative ones are always designated as centre to centre-right at minimum to far-right for some based on ideological tenets, or didn’t you know that?!

Left wing by definition are massively social democratic parties verging on democratic socialist, and there are leagues that separate any type of conservatism and even liberalism from being “left wing”. If you mean centre-right some liberal parties are centre-left, some are centrist and some in Europe and even in North America are centre to centre-right. It depends on nation and national tradition among parties.

You do not know what you are talking about, Al Peterson. Try sticking to something you are good at because ideology and knowing what designates ideology is not your strong suit.

John S you again are calling for more parties but you want them all to be left wing. What is the point of that? Well, obviously to ensure that we stay in perpetual servitude to the Liberal tyrants.

You also keep saying that the Conservative party needs to moderate. It is already a centrist party at best. SO again, you want the Conservatives to become yet another left wing party for the aforementioned results_ perpetual Liberal hegemony. Kind of like Henry Ford saying, “you can have any colour as long as its black”. You lefties always try to make Harper sound like a right wing extremist, Hardly.

Just give the useful idiots a little more time. They will see just how wrong they were at electing this disaster of a so-called Prime Minster. When we are all under sharia than they will understand just what the liberal agenda really is.

Smallest federal government in 50 years! Best PM ever. Adam Smith said minimal government. It is essential to the wealth of a nation. Greatest failing in modern academia: economics. The more unproductive labor you have (services and government) the poorer a country will be, and the more productive labor, the richer a country will be. Simple theory, ancient. But most politicians and all liberals fail to grasp this, and don’t really care, they are there to enrich themselves. Central governments are full of sociopaths and fountains of death and destruction.

“Robert West commented 4 hours ago
John Siciliano said “He presided over 2 recessions” Sorry, but that is a Liberal lie. The only one was in 2008-09 which was not caused here,”

Quite true, actually. There was a mild, although very real recession in the first half of 2015, driven mostly by the energy sector. This was validated by Statistics Canada, which is not a “liberal” outlet. The definition of “technical recession” has not changed either.

“Deborah Graupner commented 15 hours ago
Ronnie – you lefty’s always conveniently forget that Harper was bullied into running a deficit, while he had a minority government. "
Funny how the deficit is always blamed on the opposition, when that deficit was what probably saved the economy, which Harper is praised for. You can’t have it both ways… either Harper saved the economy at the expense of a large but necessary stimulus package, or the Opposition owns both.

John let me see if I am getting this straight. You propose that Canada should borrow money at 0% interest. To do what? Fully employ people? Will that borrowed money ever be repaid?

What is this talk of a good retirement and something to live off of? The CPP? A mandatory payroll tax, the sum of which is not owned by you and that you cannot will to another when you die? Oh and a crappy rate of return? Really? Tens of thousands of dollars sucked away from people during the course of their working lives. The government knows how best to use that money? What If I don’t want to save for retirement right now? What If I’m saving for down payment on a home? What if I’m paying of credits cards? Trying to start a business? These are things which may offer people better rates of return on their money than a giant government program, but no We’re too stupid to plan our own lives.

James Sears telling the truth about the Bank of Canada in federal debate and Zionist controlled mainstream parties. James Sears talking about taking control of the Bank of Canada and in essence calling Conservatives, Liberals and NDP liars and sellouts to Canada.